1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording process, an ink jet recording apparatus, and a recorded matter.
2. Related Art
Recently, a demand for printed matters having images having metallic gloss formed on recording surfaces has been increased, and methods for forming images having metallic gloss have been proposed. For example, a foil stamping recording process involving preparation of a recording medium having a highly flat recording surface and pressing of metal foil thereto, a method involving vacuum deposition of a metal onto a smooth recording surface of a plastic film, and a method involving application of a metallic pigment ink to a recording medium have been proposed.
An ink jet recording process is a method performing recording by discharging droplets of an ink composition such that the droplets adhere to a recoding medium such as paper. This recording process can record an image having high resolution and high quality at a high speed with a relatively small-sized apparatus configuration. Accordingly, it has been investigated to prepare recorded matters having metallic gloss surfaces by such an ink jet recording process. For example, JP-A-2011-137164 proposes a particle diameter of a glitter pigment for achieving both sufficient glitter of a recorded matter and stable discharge of ink from a minute nozzle of an ink jet head.
High gloss of an image formed on a recording medium is achieved by applying a glitter pigment uniformly and flatly onto the surface of the recording medium. For example, a glitter ink composition used in screen recording contains plate-like glitter pigment particles having an average particle diameter of 10 μm or more. An ink jet recording process is, however, required to use minute glitter pigment particles having an average particle diameter of about 0.5 to 5 μm for securing stable discharge from nozzles. Consequently, irregular overlapping, i.e., a deterioration in flatness, is caused in some cases due to the flatness of the surface of a recording medium itself to which the glitter pigment adheres. In some cases, the glitter pigment permeates into the depths of a recording medium depending on the permeability of the ink composition to the recording medium to reduce the pigment density on the surface of the recording medium. These phenomena lead to a disadvantage that a smooth and uniform reflective surface is not formed on the surfaces of recording media and sufficient glitter is achieved only on specific recording media. This disadvantage is particularly significant when plate-like particles are used.